Meta brings Communities to Messenger

Last week, Meta rolled out Communities to Messenger with little fanfare. This community group chat feature was originally released on WhatsApp back in 2022.

The tech giant made Community Chats available to linked Facebook groups back in 2022. However, this update allows people to join group chats for contacting businesses, private organizations and more, without having to join a group.

So how does it work?

Admins can add up to 5,000 people to Communities. This includes anyone, not just group members. Communities function similar to Discord chatrooms. Group discussions go down in front of everyone and admins can respond publicly.

How can brands use Communities?

For instance, a local book store could put a Community together to answer questions about the business and new stock arriving. This could also act as a chat group for people to discuss their favourite books (with moderation, of course).

Can this really help you, though?

If you're running a small business or start-up, or something based out of a Facebook group, this update might be what you need to grow your reach.

Many out there are keen on supporting businesses, community groups or other ventures. Even so, they don't want to commit to joining a Facebook group. With Communities, that hurdle is out of the way.

Of course, with Communities comes community management.

If you're not already engaged with your audience on social media, you need to start yesterday. On top of that, chat groups are often more fast-paced than traditional groups. So you need to have the capacity to quickly respond to queries when they come in.

Consistent engagement like that will do good for your image. And it will help ensure those who join the chat actually stick around!

-Devin, Copywriter